Page 27 of Reclaim Me

“Oh, yeah, what was it?”

Damn, I kick myself internally for backing myself into a corner. Now, I have to tell him something true because he won’t buy a lie. He knows me too well and cares too much to.

“I just needed a moment to myself.”

All of his features go soft, and he raises a hand, bringing warm fingers up to grip my chin. “What’s going on in that head of yours, Sunshine?”

My heart swells to the point of pain when he pulls out the nickname only he calls me. He started using it a few weeks after we met, not to describe my particularly sunny disposition, but to express what I am to him. A ray of sunshine, light in his darkest moment, hope in a hopeless time.

I thought that depth of emotion would be easy to translate into love, but apparently, I was wrong.

In response to his touch, my hands begin to operate of their own volition. The right one cupping his jaw while the left runs an adoring line over the smooth skin of his scalp.

“Nothing you want to hear about,” I reply, sighing when he leans into my touch.

“You worried about what’s next?”

“A little, but I know it’ll all work out.”

The dance industry is a fickle bastard that has very little love for girls with melanated skin. My decision to take the conservatory in New York was informed solely by my belief that it would help me land a principal role in a prominent ballet corps. So far, that belief has been proven wrong. I’ve been turned away by companies all up and down the East Coast, and my list of preferred locations is shrinking by the minute, but I refuse to lose hope. I’m talented and determined, and my mother always told me that counts for something.

Hunter twists his lips to the side, thinking hard about what’s upsetting me, even though I know he’ll never guess correctly. “Are you mad that I haven’t gotten you a graduation gift yet?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“Because,” he continues, acting like he doesn’t hear me, “I was going to get you something, I was going to get you several somethings, but you told me not to because you wanted something from me that I wouldn’t be able to buy in a store.”

“I remember.”

“But you never told me what you wanted.”

“I know.” My response is wrapped in a stuttered breath that’s barely audible but still manages to meet Hunter’s ears.

“You know I’d give you anything, Sunshine.”

The reminder paired with the nickname sends a jolt of pain through me. It slices through my heart and splits my chest wide open. And it takes everything in me not to scream my frustration into the inky, black darkness that surrounds us because the one thing I want is the one thing I can’t ask him for now.

I’d told Hunter not to buy me a graduation present because the only gift I wanted today was him. I wanted his love, his adoration, his heart, and in exchange, I was going to give him the only thing I hadn’t already entrusted him with: my virginity.

11

HUNTER

Then

“Iknow what I want for my graduation gift.”

I look up just in time to see mischief take over the lovely brown of Rae’s eyes and know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that I’m in trouble.

Last night, I told her that I’d give her anything, and I meant it, but I should have specified that all of her requests should be mischief free.

Because when Rae is feeling mischievous, I go on high alert, looking out for every possible pitfall along the path I’m only going down because of her. A few months back, that path had led us to a bar on the whitest side of town for her to compete in a bull riding contest just because Dee told her she didn’t think she could last more than a second on the mechanical animal’s back.

Will’s approach to Rae’s rare moments of debauchery always involves a stern denial that’s supposed to put an end to the conversation, but I know her well enough to know that that only makes her want to do it more.

Which is why the moment she sits down across from me at the kitchen table with bright eyes and shoulders set with determination, I know I’ll have no choice but to give her whatever she wants.

Pushing my plate to the side, I sit back and cross my arms. “Let’s hear it.”

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